Day 4 - Talking to God
Welcome Back!
Your faith is not about being religious but about being in a relationship with your Creator.
The best way to make any relationship healthy and growing is through communication.
The Bible is God communicating with us, and prayer is us communicating with God.
During day four, we want to help you understand and learn the basics of prayer so you can continue growing in your relationship with Jesus.
What is prayer?
Is it just talking to God?
Is it asking things from God?
Yes, it is both of these things, but it’s also so much more than that. It is talking to God, but when we pray, we should remember and have a heart of faith and humility, recognizing that we are His children and submitted to our Heavenly Father.
And, while we ask God to help with our needs through prayer, it should be done with an attitude of intimacy. Our prayers should not be a drive-by to-do list for God but time spent loving Him.
The other big question beyond
“What is prayer?” is
“How do I pray?”
There’s not really a wrong way to pray, but there are some right things that we should include when we pray. Here are four things that you should include in your daily prayers. You can remember these by using the acronym ACTS.
1. Adoration
Everyone loves to be loved and bragged about, including God. And no one deserves it more than He does.
Adoration means to adore, respect or honor. Jesus said when we pray, we should say, “Hallowed be your name.” Therefore, we should spend time worshipping God and loving who He is. As we spend several moments telling God how awesome He is, how mighty he is, how loving he is, how merciful he is, etc., we are honoring Him and building our faith.See: Psalm 100:4; Psalm 29:2
2. Confession
One of the things that started your spiritual journey was recognizing we are sinners in need of a Savior and His forgiveness.
Your relationship with God began when you prayed for His forgiveness the first time. However, you’re probably quickly learning that you're still not perfect, only forgiven. And while we need to strive to live lives that please God, when we have sinned or missed the mark, we should come to God in prayer and confess that thing to Him in order to receive forgiveness.
Confession is being honest and specific to God about your shortcomings. Jesus said when we pray, we should ask God to, “Forgive our trespasses.”See: 1 John 1:9; Psalm 51:2
3. Thanksgiving
It simply means giving thanks.
Before we ask God for anything else, we should take time to thank Him for all He has already blessed us with. Not only does our thankfulness honor God for what He has done, but it builds our faith to know that He will continue to meet our needs.
Don’t take anything for granted. Spend a few minutes thanking Him for everything He has done for you.See: Philippians 4:6; Ephesians 5:20
4. Supplication
It may not be a word you are familiar with, but it is another way of saying "petition."
It is asking God specifically for what we need. When we are praying about needs in our lives or the lives of those around us, we are petitioning Heaven.
Whether our need is physical, financial, material, or spiritual, we can ask God to help us with those things. Jesus said we should pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” So, every day ask God for what you need, not only for yourself but others. See: Philippians 4:6
Jesus prayed
Jesus commanded us to pray
Jesus taught us how to pray
So, we need to make time for prayer every day if we are going to have a strong relationship with God.
